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Entropy and the Evaluation of Labour Market Interventions

University of Oxford, robert.walker{at}socres.ox.ac.uk

The thermodynamic concept of entropy, referring to the degradation of energy and resultant disorder, has been influential in a number of disciplines including information science, ecological economics and sociology, and has recently been posited as a potentially fruitful approach to the evaluation of labour market interventions. The origins and applications of the entropy concept are reviewed before an evaluation framework is applied to assess how entropy evaluation might differ from traditional methodologies. As a thought experiment, a recent large-scale programme evaluation is `re-engineered' using entropy ideas resulting in a radically different design. Whether entropy designs would perform better than traditional ones will remain open to speculation until an entropy evaluation is implemented. Before then, the idea deserves peer review and refinement or rejection as appropriate.

Key Words: complex systems theory • entropy • evaluation • labour markets • methodology

Evaluation, Vol. 13, No. 2, 193-219 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1356389007075223


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